Scavengers reign: Miyazaki meets Solaris.

What people with ADHD crave most is novelty. The overwhelming boredom that wraps our brain every time we see patterns in a plot, and we know this guy will die in three minutes, or the villain is going to show up in five. After watching thousands of movies, we seek that tickle that releases dopamine—the new thing, something we’ve never experienced before.

And bitch, Scavengers Reign is that tickle you are looking for. If you enjoy animation in general and particularly love Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, you will love this one. It’s an absolute masterpiece I stumbled upon while scrolling through HBO Max.

The story starts quite blatantly with a spaceship stuck in orbit around a remote planet, and the crew attempts a landing on the surface to save their lives. Only a handful of the crew survives, and we follow their path to Demeter, the spaceship in the sky they're trying to reach.

From the first seconds, I was blown away by this otherworldly style of animation—both weird and tasteful. The way the artists represent the alien world pulls you in, making you feel like one of the explorers fighting for survival. The planet itself is beautiful and hostile, bizarre and ruthless, luring you in with its smells and colors while setting unpredictable traps.

The idea of a planet-organism with its own will and intelligence, similar to what we’ve seen in films like Solaris, is taken to a whole new level here. The show invites us into the very interior of this planet, executing mind-blowing transformations with our characters—their psyche and nature—giving and taking life as if it were a mythological deity. The planet pushes their abilities to the limit, revealing both angels and villains within them.

The protagonists are alive and believable, relatable to the throbbing pains in your forehead. They feel like your neighbors, your friends, your colleagues. There’s none of the over-the-top drama typical of sci-fi. The story takes you on a ride, and you don’t want it to end. The inevitability of payment for mistakes is what makes their stories so clear, so mysterious, so intricate.

I truly recommend an edible or a joint before you watch this one. Your concentration will peak, and your love for all living things will intensify, giving you the perspective to see the genius of the creators. I will definitely watch it again.

The bad news is that there will be no season 2, which only proofs that normies hate everything they can't understand.